St. Landry democrat., 1887-12-17
THE CHIEF JUSTICE.
HE CAN RETIRE WITH PAY, BUT
WILL NOT DO so.
Hale and Hearty, Though Over Seventy
Years of Age-His Family One of the
Oldest in the Country-How He Game
to he Appointed by President Grant.

Just one year ago, and he could then have
left the bench and have drawn his $40, 900
a year for the rest of his life. Like JUS
tees Field, Bradley and Miller, he pre-
fers to earn his salary rather than re-
ceive it as a pensioner, and we have on
the Supreme Bench of the United States
the curious instance of four hearty old
men working away day after day when
they could receive the same amount OF
pay for doing nothing. Chief Justice
Waite promises to work for many years
to come He has no intention of resign
ing his position and his health is better
now than it has been for years. He has
recovered from his sickness of two years
ago, and he looks more like man OF
sixty than of seventy-one
His black eye is bright and his strong
face is almost free from wrinkles. A
thick growth of dark, iron-gray hair COW
ers his head and full beard of black,
mixed with silver, falls upon his chest.
He has splendid physique. Of medium
height, his shoulders are broad, and his
head fits firmly upon them. He stands
as straight as a Lake Superior oak, and
his carriage has all the dignity that should
pertain to the head of our Judiciary.
His face is striking one. The fore
head is broad and full, though not re-
markably high. The eyebrows are dark
and heavy, and the eyes which look out
In no faa1
ing of the soul behind. Sometimes they
are grave and serious. At others they
twinkle with laughter, and when v ate
laughs the twitching Of smile is seen
mouth is full Of character, and the nose
above it is large enough to be that of a
great man. He has the central seat in
the row Of the eight grave seniors who
comprise the present Supreme Court,
and the old-tashioned. high backed, ma
hogany chair in which he sits
is directly under the golden Amer
lean eagle which looks down from the
Supreme Court gallery This eagle has
what looks like a golden snake in its
mouth, and if it should let it fall
the snake would drop upon the bushy
hair of the chief justice. Fastened to
the eagles talons is the key to an arched
canopy of royal purple silk, and the
chief justice has thus a background like
that OF king upon his throne, These
decorations, however, are the only Osten-
tatious things about him. He wears his
robe, it is true, like the toga of a Roman
senator but there is nothing of the snob
about him. and he is not pulled up with
the great cOnceit of little men. He
shows himself human as he sits upon the
bench, and he will laugh at the joke of a
lawyer and yawn repeatedly at a prOsy
speech. He listens closely to the evil
dtnce presented to the court, asks QucS-
tiOns now and then, and not infreQucntly
puzzles the young lawyers by his inter
rOgatOreS
Chief Justice Waite is a very kind
hearted man, and it is probable that he
would pardon serious infOrmalities in
Young LAWYER, though he would hardly
do so in man of experience Our
Supreme Court is very careful of its dig
nifty, and it would resent anything which
compromised this Chief Justice Waite,
while he is simple in his manners, never
fOrgets that he is chief justice of the
Supreme Court, and he carries the dig
nifty of a justice into his social life. He
is fond Of society," and has been often seen
with his pretty daughters at White
House reception. He lives very nicely at
Washington, and owns big brown
stone house Just next to the Mexican
legation and within a stones throw Of
the Arlington Hotel. He entertains fire.
quentIy and gives dinners and receptions
during the season.
The Waite family is one of the oldest
families in the country and the cOat-of
arms granted to it bears the date of 1912.
Thomas Wavte, who was a member of
Parliament, signed the death warrant of
Charles |, and the family moved to this
country soon after the Restoration. 1t
was about thirty years after the landing
of the Pilgrims that Thomas Wayte set
tied at Lyme, Conn, and this mans
son was one of the first presidential elect
ors after the War of the Revolution and
cast his vote for George Washington.
Judge Waite's father was chief justice of
the Supreme Court of Connecticut and
he studied law under Matthew Griswold,
one of the most noted statesmen of early
DAYS. Like Judge Waite, he was grad
uate of Yale, and, like Judge Waite, he
was eminent as jurist. He left the Su
preme Bench, however, at the age of
seventy, and he died at eightytwo If
CHEF Justice Waite lives as long he
will come within two years Of outlasting
the century.
Waite's father gave him good educa-
ton He entered Yale at seventeen, and
he graduated in the same class with
William NJ Evarts Edwards Pierrepont
and Professor Benjamin Silliman Years
afterward, when he had moved to Toledo,
O., and made a reputation there, and
Evarts had gone to New York, the two
met as representatives of the United
States in the arbitration at Geneva.
This was his first entrance upon his
national career. He was known as a
successful practitioner at Toledo, and
had been a member of the Ohio Legis-
lature, but it was not until 1872 that the
people at large knew of his existence.
He returned to Toledo at the close of
the arbitration, became a member of the
constitutional convention of the State of
Ohio, and two years later President
Grant, to the surprise of all, sent in his
name to the Senate as the successor of
Chief Justice Chase. Waite was sur
prised to receive the nomination. 1t
came entirely without solicitation on his
part and without pressure on the part of
III, fr;oDHS waS confirmed mani